Man arrested in North Bethesda after child kidnapped in bizarre string of events

3-year-old boy unharmed

A smashed blue Kia and police caution tape were all that was left on Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda Thursday after police arrested a man who they say briefly kidnapped a 3-year-old child from the apartment complex in which he lived.

Police have arrested 27-year-old Shervin Hessamfar and charged him with kidnapping and burglary.

According to Montgomery County Police Capt. Jim Daly, police first learned that something was amiss in North Bethesda Thursday after receiving a report of a hit-and-run collision at Tuckerman Lane and Rockville Pike at 10:41 a.m.

The driver, since identified as Hessamfar, abandoned the car. It was still there, along with other debris from the crash, on Thursday afternoon.

Minutes after learning of the crash, police received a report of a man who had broken into an apartment just yards away on Tuckerman Lane, Daly said.

Police said Hessamfar lives in the apartment building. It is at the bottom of a long curving drive with other small apartment buildings. It intersects with Rockville Pike below a highway underpass.

Daly said a woman was in the apartment with her child when someone broke into it through a rear window.

“She hears a crashing sound ... then sees this man in her apartment. She grabs her child, exits, and never looks back,” he said.

After racing out of her home, the woman told police of the incident. Police were already in the area because of the reports they’d received of the hit and run, Daly said.

While police were investigating that first break-in, they received another call from a third-floor resident that a man had kidnapped a young boy.

Daly said that prompted police to lock down the building and begin a floor-by-floor search of the building.

Police found Hessamfar and the child in a stairwell of a nearby parking garage at around 11:30 a.m., Daly said. Police arrested Hessamfar and rescued the boy — who was uninjured — without incident, he said.

“This is not your typical burglary, or hit and run,” he said.

Police later learned that between the time the two incidents occurred, someone set off a fire alarm on the second floor, Daly said. The boy’s mother stepped out of her third-floor apartment to see what was going on. Hessaamfar rushed in and grabbed her 3-year-old boy, Daly said.

Hessamfar was in the hospital and being evaluated, Daly said. Attorney information was not available Thursday evening.